Students urged to not to rush Clearing decisions

The university admissions service, Ucas, today urged students still seeking a place at university through Clearing not to panic after record numbers scrambled to secure a place.

More students than ever before entered Clearing this year but experts insisted there were still places available. Ucas advised students not to rush to secure a place before the introduction of top-up fees next year before they have considered whether they might benefit from the new grant which is being introduced.

Some 103,829 students were left without a place at university yesterday after picking up their A-level results compared with 93,416 the year before. Ucas is advertising places on 37,770 courses but could not confirm how many places were available on each course.

However, a spokesman for Ucas sought to downplay reports that 60,000 were left without a place after some media reported that 37,770 courses meant 37,770 places. "The statement that 60,000 students will not be able to find a place at university or college this year is highly misleading and not helpful to applicants looking for a place at this time of the year. A course may well have one or more places available."

By this morning, 309,777 applicants had firmly accepted the offer of a place compared with 284,451 the year before amid intense speculation that students are trying to avoid the introduction of the £3,000 top-up fees next year.

Half of all admissions bosses quizzed by EducationGuardian.co.uk earlier this week were putting the rising applications down to next year's funding regime change.

The Ucas spokesman said: "Don't panic ... research the courses that are available and see if they do apply to you. Then contact institutions to begin the process. The message is that there are places available and students, if they are prepared to be flexible, have a good chance of finding a place in higher education.

"We would also urge applications who might be trying to avoid the new variable fee structure to look at that before they make the decision."

A spokeswoman for Universities UK said that students should be wary of rushing to get any place on a course which might not suit them. "We don't want to see people going into a course where the fit isn't right. We would encourage people to think carefully about what course they want and where. We have no interest in getting them into something which isn't right for them," she said.

In universities, many were reporting a busier year than normal. A spokeswoman for Luton University said the office had been "frantic".

"Yesterday we far exceeded last year on the number of calls we took. I was in the clearing room at about 2pm and at that point we had exceeded the whole day for the same time last year." Luton took 1,214 calls compared with 855 the year before and made 41% more offers.

David Maxwell, the head of student recruitment at Coventry University, said: "I would certainly say it's very busy. In the courses which are already among our most popular, things like physiotherapy and social work, they are incredibly competitive and are filling up rapidly and being taken out of Clearing. We had something in the region of 1,700 calls to our clearing line. It really is a very busy year."

However, others reported that there was no year-on-year change. "It's just the same as normal. I think it's all been over-egged. It's always hectic but this year's no different than every other year," said Carol Knight, the head of student recruitment University of Central Lancashire.

Deirdre Bounds, of the gap year company, i-to-i, said: "We've seen an increase in the number of people who haven't made the grade call in to find out what they can do. We suggest working, fundraising and travelling; trying to mix it somewhat so it's not just a round the world trip, or just stacking shelves for 12 months. Try to do different things. Anything that will set you apart from others. Our research shows that 58% of employers want ot see a constructive gap year. Our advice is to do constructive."